BT’s rescue of TalkTalk from administration has not been without controversy. As the Government weighs up the pros and cons of the deal, it has (rightly) provided its strongest signal yet that it is open to exploring a safety net in the event of future operator failures.
As the saga of banning TikTok in the US has drawn to an apparent close, we reflect on the economic and security-based interests at play. Given these layered motivations, we don’t expect similar divestments of the app are likely to emerge elsewhere in the same way vendor restrictions did in telecoms markets.
Ongoing initiatives of antitrust reform have three things in common. Firstly, data is increasingly seen as an asset that can determine whether a market is competitive or not, and could represent a barrier to entry; secondly, authorities demand stronger powers to monitor big tech and act against them, sometimes even ex-ante; and thirdly, markets are increasingly seen as global rather than national in scope. But it remains unclear whether all governments will follow through with legislation.
The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, made the headlines with his recent interview in which he called regulation of tech companies “inevitable”, and concluded that the free market has failed to deliver. His prediction is likely to be accurate, as policymakers increasingly see cases for intervention with regard to data protection and disinformation.
